Study Guide Dec 21st - Dec 26th

STUDY GUIDE

Monday, December 21: An Extra-Ordinary Night; Read Luke 2:11. It was an ordinary night with ordinary sheep and ordinary shepherds. Were it not for a God who loves to hook “extra” on the front of ordinary, the night would have gone unnoticed. God dances amidst the common, and that night He did a waltz. God comes into the common and His most powerful tools are the simplest.
Tuesday, December 22: The Gift of Grace; Read Proverbs 8:35. Grace is created by God and given to man, and on that basis alone, Christianity, is set apart from any other religion in the world. Every other approach to God is a bartering system. Christianity isn’t a bartering system; man has no grounds upon which to negotiate.
Wednesday, December 23: God’s Great Gifts; Read 2 Corinthians 9:15. Why did He do it, you ask in disbelief? He did it to hear those words of disbelief, “You did this for me!” The next time a sunrise steals your breath or a meadow of flowers leaves you speechless, remain that way. Say nothing as heaven whispers, “Do you like it? I did it just for you.”
Thursday, December 24: The Promise Remains; Read Matthew 1:16. Why did God use people to deliver His son? He didn’t have to; He could have just laid the Savior on a doorstep. The answer is simple. He wants us to know that when the world goes wild, He stays calm.
Friday, December 25: God Became A Man; Read Philippians 2:7. It all happened in a remarkable moment, a moment like no other. God became a man. Divinity arrived. Heaven opened herself and placed her most precious one in a human womb. The omnipotent, in one instant, became flesh and blood.
Saturday, December 26: The Strength of God’s Love; Read Romans 5:8. “Can anything make me stop loving you?” God asks. You wonder how long my love will last? Find your answer on a splintered cross, on a craggy hill. That’s me up there feeling your sin. That‘s your death I’m dying. That’s your resurrection I’m living. That’s how much I love you.
(Grace. Gibbs. Thomas Nelson. 2000)